Today’s Chicago Tribune has an article about a 21-yr. old man who lost his mother in a drunk-driving accident with St. Louis Rams’ Leonard Little. Little got a slap-on-the-wrist sentence and now has been caught driving while intoxicated a second time.
His flagrant disregard for the life of the woman he killed and her family are evident from the article.
“How long, O Lord, how long?”
After the chimney was taken down completely, I was covered in fine gray dust. The GUYS and I went to McDonalds on Kirby & Neil for a quick lunch. Mind you, I walked in and immediately went to the bathroom. I washed my hands and wiped my face.
Then I sat through lunch being stared at or “visibly ignored.” I got some very bad looks from some parents sitting near us with their kids. I even overheard some folks commenting about how I was a homeless guy these two college guys were taking to lunch. Now, I admit, my hands were shaking from using the #10 sledgehammer all morning, I didn’t shave this morning, and I was covered in dust. I was wearing dirty, ripped up clothes.
I stuck out.
What floored me was the utter disrespect that I and the two guys with me were paid. Mocking jokes were made with little effort to cover the disdain. I realized that the other two looked like highschool dropout farm-laborer types. Irony is that both guys with me are in the top 1% at U of I and I’m applying to the Ivy Leagues.
We are slaves to our perceptions. But I must not judge: there, but for the grace of God, go I.
…with my bare hands!!!
I tore down a chimney this morning with my bare hands. Ok, so it was just the part above the top of the roof. The chimney came up through the middle of the house at the ridge, equidistant from both gables. I got up there to knock it down with a sledgehammer, and with two pushes rocked it off in one piece. Downside is that I cracked a truss beam when it fell. But 2 1/2 feet of chimney, all in one fell swoop!
Yale University Prof. Dr. Miroslav Volf Interviewed by PBS
Dr. Miroslav Volf was interviewed by PBS regarding issues of faith and culture - faith in everyday life. The interview can be found here. The video can be found here.
Quoting from the Online Transcript:
If I say, “I forgive you,” I have implicitly said you have done something wrong to me. If I say, “I forgive you,” I have blamed you for infringing [in] some way upon my space, [for having] done something that wasn’t right. You have committed [an] injustice. So every forgiveness has as … part a[n] affirmation of the claims of justice and statement that somebody has transgressed against me. But what forgiveness is, at its heart, is both saying that justice has been violated and not letting that violation count against the offender. I release the offender from what justice would demand to be done for that person. That’s what forgiveness is. I think Christian tradition has a very acute and important sense of that and can make an important contribution to proper understanding of, and practice of, forgiveness.
Volf speaks of the nature of forgiveness in no uncertain terms: Forgiving someone declares that a wrong has been done. Nonetheless, forgiveness frees the wronged and the wrongdoer of the burden of the wrong, allowing them to live together in reconciliation.
I just added an “Eccentricities” link to Intratext.com. Intratext has a lot of sources online in a searchable format. Check it out!
Accordion
A friend of mine loaned me his accordion tonight. I played an accordion for the first time! It’s rather easy to pick up… everything just follows basic music theory.
I think someone took a picture of me on their camera phone as I sat on our front porch playing. Hmm… Matt the accordion player?
Weather
It’s a beautiful day. And across the street from the church, our neighbors have erected a large, inflatable pink gorilla. It’s 2 1/2 stories tall.
Party on…
Cabinetry as a Spiritual Discipline
Working with 90-year-old cabinetry is a spiritual discipline. It is a lot of quiet time alone, scrubbing off layers of paint and varnish that have been on there for who knows how long. People come through the room and talk with me: it gives me the opportunity to love them as I work - listening to their day’s events.
There’s no cutting corners on this project: I’m doing it because I love it. I want to do a good job. Nonetheless, I must beware of perfectionism. It’s all 90 years old. It’s had seven coats of paint on it. It ain’t going to be perfect.
But it is beautiful!
The right sidebar now contains a growing list of written resources for what Dallas Willard calls “A Curriculum for Christlikeness.” A believer engaging in this curriculum intends to shape his or her life after Jesus Christ - to look like Jesus. An outline of the Curriculum may be found in two places in Willard’s work:
1. The Divine Conspiracy, chapter 9.
2. “Looking Like Jesus,” Christianity Today 34 (August 10, 1990), 29 - 31.
I have adapted this model for use in leading others and myself in discipleship. The resources listed to the right are intended for all who desire to grow in this kind of Christlikeness.
Deësidia
Lord Jesus Christ
Only Son of God
Have Mercy on Me
A Sinner
Lord, I give my heart to you.
I seek your kingdom and your righteousness first.
Let me seek nothing but you
You for yourself, not for your gifts
Let me live in the new creation
Put to death my old self
Enliven my heart to eternal life.
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens; thou earth, reply, Alleluia!
Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids his rise, Alleluia!
Christ hath opened Paradise, Alleluia!
Lives again our glorious King! Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Dying once, he all doth save, Alleluia!
Where’s thy victory, O grave, Alleluia!
Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies. Alleluia!
(Charles Wesley)
Holy Saturday
This day is Jesus’ day of rest - the seventh day of the week of the Passion.
On this day, he rests, dead, in the tomb.
On this day, no one may serve him - it is against the law; his body may not be prepared.
On this day, Jesus rested from all his work.
Silence
All is quiet
All creation waits
All the birds hold their breath
Let nothing disturb our Lord
Noise
All is loud
All “get back to normal”
All the people pass by, heedless of the power of what is going on nearby
The world continues on as it did before
Night falls
We must rest
Tomorrow we will go to the tomb
Will they let us see him?
Good Friday
O sacred Head, now wounded,
With grief and shame weighed down;
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns, Thine only crown
O sacred Head, what glory,
What bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory,
I joy to call Thee mine
What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners’ gain:
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Thine the deadly pain
Lo, here I fall, my Saviour!
‘Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor,
Vouchsafe to me Thy grace.
What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee, dearest Friend:
For this Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever;
And should I fainting be,
Lord let me never, never
Out live my love to Thee
House
We have just taken on a major service ministry project: Restoration Urban Ministries has given us a house to prepare for a family that needs it. It needs a new roof, new drywall everywhere, probably new wiring, and some new sink/bathroom fixtures.
If you are interested in donating money, time or materials, please e-mail me!
